1. wxmancanada's Avatar
    So - a bit of background - day to day I work at Rogers in Canada as an engineer - this time of year I find myself sharing my time with other areas of the company, specifically with broadcasting. This week I'm working with them to produce a Santa call in show, basically kids can call in and talk with "Santa" live on air.

    Santa asks they kids what they want for Christmas and the responses vary from puppies to race cars to snow. Yesterday was the first day of the show, a lot of kids asked for iPad this, iPhone that. It shocking how many kids know about and want these products.

    Today, we opened up an inbox for kids to email their message to Santa as well. Sitting in the control room on my PlayBook, I read through all the emails coming in. To my surprise, one kid asked for "the new BlackBerry iPad". 8 or so emails go by, another one comes in. This girl asked for the new Torch. I pay attention to the program for a minute or so, and more calls come in, two kids asking for a Torch and 3 more asking for the "PwayBook"!

    Kinda neat!
    hpjrt, jafobabe, Chaddface and 3 others like this.
    12-20-11 08:20 PM
  2. robtanz's Avatar
    There is a Playbook coming for my 7 year old daughter from Santa this year. She has played with mine since I got it so it is no wonder she wanted one for herself.
    hpjrt and cogsinister like this.
    12-20-11 08:25 PM
  3. blackjack93117's Avatar
    This is one request I think Santa should grant. Get em while they are young!
    Playbook is rising from the ashes. From the mouths of babes...
    12-20-11 09:56 PM
  4. Unsure2's Avatar
    I would hesitate to give a tablet to a young child. Very addictive and bad for the mind. Also, the LCD screens, which utilize PWM (pulse width modulation) LED backlighting, can be hard on young eyes (some are hard on my eyes, too, for that matter).
    12-20-11 10:04 PM
  5. lpchouinard's Avatar
    2 16GB are waiting in Christmas socks right now... My boys will have the same toy daddy have
    12-20-11 10:43 PM
  6. anthogag's Avatar
    I'm reading a book about advertising (Brandwashed) and this book states that marketing firms are definitely targeting children. Ex. The book states marketing firms hired by Apple are targeting children
    12-20-11 11:53 PM
  7. blackjack93117's Avatar
    I would hesitate to give a tablet to a young child. Very addictive and bad for the mind. Also, the LCD screens, which utilize PWM (pulse width modulation) LED backlighting, can be hard on young eyes (some are hard on my eyes, too, for that matter).
    Not sure I would worry about that one.

    Just be a parent and restrict what they download or use. Take it away when they have played with it too long. Use it WITH them, like when you read a bedtime story. Interactive games and educational apps are a heck of a lot better than plopping them in front of the boob tube.

    Flourescent lights are worse than any tablet screen the persistence of the light is longer than any modulation. It is much like charging a capacitor with a pulsed signal. The capacitor settles to a voltage, the voltage does not modulate with the pulse frequency. Same thing with light from a modulated LED.
    12-21-11 12:12 AM
  8. alnamvet68's Avatar
    I love it when a child can cut through the Applemania smog, and see that there are intelligent, viable, and worthwhile alternatives to overpriced electronic flavor of the moment(s). There is hope for the continuation of intelligent life if these kids are an example.
    12-21-11 08:21 AM
  9. jivegirl14's Avatar
    I love it when a child can cut through the Applemania smog, and see that there are intelligent, viable, and worthwhile alternatives to overpriced electronic flavor of the moment(s). There is hope for the continuation of intelligent life if these kids are an example.
    And now that Angry Birds has come to Playbook....there is hope for us all!
    alnamvet68 likes this.
    12-21-11 10:46 AM
  10. nasa25's Avatar
    I love it when a child can cut through the Applemania smog, and see that there are intelligent, viable, and worthwhile alternatives to overpriced electronic flavor of the moment(s). There is hope for the continuation of intelligent life if these kids are an example.
    Or, conversely, you can just like the products that you think are good, regardless of the logo on the casing.

    Being true to yourself and liking what you like beats fanboyism any day of the week.
    12-21-11 12:14 PM
  11. asherwiin's Avatar
    I love it when a child can cut through the Applemania smog, and see that there are intelligent, viable, and worthwhile alternatives to overpriced electronic flavor of the moment(s). There is hope for the continuation of intelligent life if these kids are an example.
    Well, if what 14 year-old girls want is a true indicator of what phones/devices will rule the market, then Blackberry will be crushing Apple and Android in the future!

    Seems having BBM on a Berry is a 'must' for a teenage girl, while owning an iPhone isn't (at least according to my daughter and her friends!)
    12-21-11 01:03 PM
  12. pmccartney's Avatar
    I'm not surprised that's what many kids are asking for.
    I have 3 kids, two high-schoolers and one elementary. They all want and have BlackBerry phones and so do the majority of their friends and classmates that have phones.
    BTW, they on Rogers prepaid BB plans so all together <$100/mo for every feature they want.
    12-21-11 01:23 PM
  13. patpatiar's Avatar
    I would hesitate to give a tablet to a young child. Very addictive and bad for the mind. Also, the LCD screens, which utilize PWM (pulse width modulation) LED backlighting, can be hard on young eyes (some are hard on my eyes, too, for that matter).
    Anything is okay for you, as long as its in moderation.
    A child owning a PB is no different for when I grew up playing game boys etc etc.
    12-21-11 01:34 PM
  14. Unsure2's Avatar
    .....
    Flourescent lights are worse than any tablet screen the persistence of the light is longer than any modulation. It is much like charging a capacitor with a pulsed signal. The capacitor settles to a voltage, the voltage does not modulate with the pulse frequency. Same thing with light from a modulated LED.
    I have to disagree on this one. Fluorescent backlighting is generally easier on the eyes than LED backlighting. First, fluorescent phosphors do not instantly return to a dark state the way an LED does. More important, the "blink" rate for fluorescent tubes in backlighting applications is a lot higher than the rather low (in Hz) "blink" rate for LED used to provide PWM backlighting. (Note, this is not the refresh rate.)The situation with some high-end Apple and Lenovo Thinkpad laptops was so bad that I would develop almost instant headache when looking at them--unless I turned the brightness up all the way for a 100% duty cycle. I actually returned a Thinkpad for this reason. Most companies know the pulse frequency should be at least several hundred Hz. Apple and Lenovo had it at <100hz for some reason which, for susceptable individuals, caused extreme eyestrain.
    12-21-11 07:52 PM
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